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 The WSET Advanced Level Certified, Commercial Director of Accolade Wines for South. Europe, Africa, Middle East, South and Central America, has visited Mumbai and Delhi earlier but this time he also visited Bangalore.
The Former Professional Cricketer for Somerset in the mid-eighties/early nineties has been an avid fan of cricket and has played with the likes of Ian Botham, Viv Richards and Steve Waugh. After his cricketing career he worked in the alcoholic beverage industry where he started with beer and moved on to cider and finally wine when he joined Accolade Wines when Hardys was sold in a chain of different moves to Champ Private Equity in 2011 and renamed.
Delhi Golf Club might be the best Golf Club in India and perhaps rated the best social club in Delhi by the cognoscenti but it would hardly find a place in the category where wine culture is significant. But the current committee which had inducted Arora in the wine core committee this year, is in a mood to flow with the changing times and is trying to inculcate a wine culture in the club. Its members were very positive with his suggestion to have the Indian Wine Academy organize a guided tasting  session with the most popular Australian Brand in the UK, especially since a senior marketing person of the Company was visiting the country. In no time the available 60 seats were registered.
Sula Selections has been importing Hardys for 9-10 years, much before Nick came onto the scene and the financial restructuring took place in 2011.While introducing Nick to the members, Arora pointed out that the winery set up in 1853 by the Englishman Thomas Hardy, the great great grandfather of the 5th generation William Hardy of today, had released the first vintage in 1857 when the India’s first War of Independence was fought against the British.
It was in 1988 that a new label called ‘Stamp’ had been introduced by the company based on the original 1937 Australian postage stamps issued. The range available in India through Sula Selections includes Hardys Stamp Sparkling wine made from the Champagne blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and made with the traditional method of second fermentation in the bottle. The other four wines of the evening were Riesling-Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay-Semillon, Cabernet-Merlot and Cabernet-Shiraz which were the protagonists of the evening that saw a relatively restrained audience gradually opening up to the warmth and informed presence of Nick and ending up with a lot of discussions about different wines and a barrage of questions which Nick gladly answered.
 It was an interesting event in that all the wines presented were not varietals that Australia is known to have taken the lead in, but blends of two grape varieties. Nick explained that they represented the style of the winemaker who decided the blend and percentages of the grapes. As was expected, people had fairly evenly divided viewpoints on their most favourite wine of the evening, the Chardonnay-Semillon being the only wine that did not find many takers-perhaps because the dry wine had been poured after the fruity and aromatic Riesling Gewuerz blend. An animated discussion for and against the Cabernet Merlot and Cabernet Shiraz as the wine of the evening were seen, with the thin majority voting against my favourite of the evening-Cabernet Shiraz.
A nice introduction to the members who were quite forthcoming with interesting questions even after the session was closed with members saying they would love to have more rendezvous with Hardys Stamp label. An invitation from Nick to the members to visit the winery whenever they visited Australia and a very special one-off price for the wines announced by Sula on the spur of the moment, acted as the sweetener for the 2-hour session.
Subhash Arora
INVITE
Tags: Nick Pringle, Accolade Wines, Australia, Hardys Wines, Hardys Degustation Evening, Sula Selections, Stamp, Hardys Stamp |